ROCHESTER — Since the last budget cycle, officials throughout the state have been feeling the negative effects of the modified Child in Need of Services (CHINS) program and say perhaps the worst of it is yet to come.

“I don’t even think we’ve seen it all yet,” Maggie Bishop, director of the state Division for Children, Youth & Families (DCYF). “We’ve just begun to see.”

CHINS petitions can be filed to bring a troublesome juvenile under the age of 17 before a court, to outline potential services that can be provided to help the minor.

Robin Laroche, court liaison for the Rochester school district, described the former CHINS program as one of the many tools in her arsenal she often turned to as a last resort to help a struggling child or family, especially when it came to issues of truancy.

“Once we had pursued every available avenue that we had available to us, the CHINS petition for truancy was like … the last straw, basically,” she said. “When we were able to file CHINS petitions for truancy, we had certain guidelines to follow. Once we developed all of those, we could follow a petition from the court. Without having that, it just gives us less teeth.”

Changes to the law

In 2011, the state adopted a new definition for the CHINS program that essentially narrowed it to only serve the most extreme cases of poor juvenile behavior, to save approximately $7 million from a state budget approved by the House of Representatives, led by a Republican legislature.

Bishop explained before the last budget process, CHINS petitions could serve up to 1,000 children 17 and under per year, and in some cases even 18-year-olds. Today, they can only accommodate 50, with new stipulations that dictate which child will qualify for services paid for by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The law, which went into effect on Sept. 30, 2011, reads services may only be applied to “a child under the age of 18 with a diagnosis of severe emotional, cognitive, or other mental health issues who engages in aggressive, fire setting, or sexualized behaviors that pose a danger to the child or others and who is otherwise unable or ineligible to receive services.”

The CHINS program defines a trouble child so narrowly, most police, parents and schools in the Tri-City area feel they have no way to enforce basic rules, like listening to parents, going to school and staying drug and alcohol free.

Rochester Schools Superintendent Michael Hopkins said his district has been very concerned for the well-being of students since the change, whose families may not be assisted now as they were before.

“Parents who are struggling look to the court for help, but now you’d have to be so severe to really get in to the top 50 students … you’re going to have problems with students before they ever even get to court,” Hopkins explained. “I think that’s the difficulty, is a child in need of services really means we’re hoping to give them services so we can get them better, not that they’re so bad off that you can’t turn it around.”

Impact on the Region

In Farmington, Police Chief Kevin Willey said the changes in the CHINS definition has dramatically affected his community. In the past, CHINS petitions were used to especially help Farmington minors found abusing substances like alcohol but now, Willey explained his department has to wait to file a petition until a child’s circumstances are very severe.

“The problem we run into was essentially the legalization of certain behaviors by removing the statutory wording about violation level offenses from the CHINS statute,” Willey said. “When you look at it from the perspective of intervening with problems, chances are with a young child the first illicit substance they’re going to experience is alcohol. And the thought that we would not be able to address this issue at the earliest possible opportunity is really something to me that really is a travesty.”

Willey has many years of experience working with juveniles and currently serves on the board for Northern Strafford County Juvenile Court Diversion Programs known as CHANCES. He said he hopes to approach the House soon to address the issues he sees with the law change.

“The first time a kid has an alcohol problem, we shouldn’t be waiting on the second and third time where he’s drunk to pick him up,” he said.

In Dover, Police Lt. Brant Dolleman explained although his department previously filed a small number of CHINS petitions, in the case of juvenile delinquency and even runaway cases, there were support systems in place for struggling families.

“It was one of those things where you could address behaviors before it was a level of criminality,” Dolleman explained.

He said while he doesn’t believe the change has greatly affected the Garrison City, he noted in the months of July, August and September this year, police responded to 21 calls related to “juvenile disturbances,” not counting runaway reports.

“We handle all sorts of juvenile issues that run the gamut — kids who don’t come home at night, kids who won’t go to school,” Dolleman said. “Certainly the CHINS petition was not the cure all in the past (and ) it wasn’t the magic bullet that solved everything but it was just one of the several things that was out there. It’s one of those things that’s no longer there anymore.”

In Rochester, Superintendent Hopkins described the scenario as one where now municipalities must take on far more to help local youth.

“It really is a burden on a community that has some students (and children) that are misbehaving and they can’t get services right away to solve it,” Hopkins said.

The Rochester Police Department has also currently implemented a new system to charge parents with violation level offenses for their children who miss more than 15 days of school and engage in excessively truant behavior, effective in January 2012. The new policy has brewed controversy in the community, since it was announced at the Rochester School Board’s Special Services Committee session a few weeks ago. But local officials explained, more parameters have to be set to change child behavior.

As another added consequence to the revised CHINS parameters, Bishop explained residential organizations that provide local services are struggling now, too. She said before the Legislature considered changing the CHINS program around, DCYF was working to have more children placed with relatives, rather than stay at community houses, like Our House for Girls in Dover, for example. When the CHINS program changed, and lowered the number of children who qualify for such services, local programs began to close. Our House for Girls closed this summer and reports say the Hannah House, a home for pregnant teenagers in Lebanon, will close at the end of the year.

Bishop explained although residential programs don’t work for every child in need, they sometimes can be the optimal path for a troubled juvenile, and the climate of the times has her concerned.

Hopes for the future

At a recent Rochester School Board meeting, Julie Brown, who recently left her 24-year term as a state representative, urged her fellow school board members to write a letter to Governor-elect Maggie Hassan, requesting as she reviews the state budget, provisions be made to if not restore the CHINS statute, to at least enhance it to a level adequate for local agencies.

“People who are having trouble with their youngsters with shoplifting et cetera, when CHINS was there, they were able to go before a judge, and get whatever help is needed, make restitution and whatever else the judge thought would be beneficial,” Brown said. “It helped the parents, the youngsters and the community.”

Brown said in 2011, when she served in the House, she voted every time against the proposed changes to CHINS.

“It’s sort of like that old expression ‘penny wise and pound foolish,’” she said.

Bishop echoed a similar sentiment, describing the circumstance as a “pay now, pay later” situation where troubled youth eventually grow into troubled adults.

“These are the decisions we have to make,” she said. “Do we serve them now or do we serve them later? … The key point here is this is not something I think any of us wanted, but I think it’s something now that we as a state need to try to work together on to find a solution.”

John DeJoie, a coordinator of the New Hampshire Child Advocacy Network (NH CAN), held a “children’s summit” through the Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire this past week where dozens of advocacy partners met. An item on their agenda was the future plans for restoring the CHINS law.

DeJoie said he is optimistic for the future, for local partnerships to work with the Legislature to work together.

“It’s pretty clear the legislature wants to do something to address the issue with the CHINS,” he said. “ … I think there’s a lack of understanding about CHINS, but I think as far as child advocates, we’re on the same page at this point and hopeful we can make the situation better for everyone involved.”

Bishop said she understands this is something that “had to happen” to save the budget, but things have to change.

“You’ve got kids that are roaming the streets…,” Bishop said. “This isn’t something the DCYF can do alone and the towns can do alone … I don’t think this decision was made with a great deal of thought, but I think we can work together to try to find out what the solution is.”